10 Second Anime - Hibike! Euphonium - Episode 12



When assigned a difficult part in the music, Kumiko finds her reason to play the euphonium.

Heh.

Natsuki had some teasing payback for Yuuko.

The trumpet section is all nice-nice now that they've all apologized to each other. Reina was being smug about winning the first audition and Kaori's pride made them both go through that public ordeal. So let's play some music, shall we?

 

Whoa. Asuka is something special! She played that difficult part on a sight read on the first try. No wonder her audition was so short. But, like Kaori mentioned, Asuka needs to be a better teacher.

 

Ha! Kumiko thanked Asuka for being so good so that she can drown out her playing. Oh no, she's still going to have to play that part too.

 

It seems to me that Kumiko's sister holds some resentment toward the euphonium because she gave it up to study for college entrance exams, like Aoi quit the band, and she still didn't get into the school of her choice.

 

It took a lot of crying for Kumiko to articulate her disappointment and frustration.

Oh, and running. Can't forget the running. She wants to get better! And she finally understood how Reina felt when they lost their junior high competition.

That frustrated feeling that you've done all you could, but you still failed. Sometimes all you can do is cry.

 

Man up, Shuuichi! You should have run across the bridge and held that crying girl. There's an opportunity lost right there.

 

If kids these days didn't have cell phones to forget, the storytellers would have to invest a bit more effort for convenient plot devices.

 

Sometimes you can arrive at truth just by bitching at your sister. Kumiko just likes playing the euphonium. That's her reason to play. We've learned some things now about Kumiko - she wants to be special, she wants to be a better player and she likes playing her instrument. Sounds good to me.

 

Taki-sensei could say a little bit more to justify his directions. He made a girl despondent for a couple of hours by not including the words "for today," when he asked for just Asuka to play through that difficult part. Thanks to a convenient cell phone he was able to tell Kumiko to keep practicing that bit for the competition.

 

Meanwhile, Reina was enjoying hearing about Kumiko's new inspiration until she heard that part about her being alone with Taki-sensei.

Reina shock! She just dropped her water bottle on the ground! And Kumiko kept prattling on and then got totally side tracked by the elusive Eupho-kun.

Eupho-kun get! Oh man, Sapphire is going to be so jealous! Maybe almost as jealous as Reina over Kumiko's special alone time with Taki-sensei.

Hmm.

There were a couple of images used as symbols this episode. One was heavy-handed and obvious while the other fit the characters and the show much better. Using a butterfly trying to fly only to get caught in a spider web is pretty cliché, especially when used as foreshadowing for Kumiko's disappointment.

 

The better image was Midori saying that Kumiko was reaching for the moon, even using some melon bread to punctuate her remarks. When Kumiko got the collectible Eupho-kun on the first try from the convenience store machine and jammed it at the moon, that was a callback to the very first episode. Symbols which rely on the elements from their own story always work better. Maybe now Kumiko understands what reaching for the moon means.